Views from a social distancing champ
Apr. 20th, 2020 03:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psipsyI'm going to avoid the theorizing (or at least try to) on the current Big Thing on everyone's mind, because that's been done every which way already and honestly, nobody really knows what the hell is going on. I'm just going to state what I'm observing.
My workplace has been deemed "essential", so I still have to work amidst all this craziness. I'm fine with that. That said, working from home is impossible for me as all of my work requires me to be physically present to do anything. Those wrenches don't turn themselves.
There are fewer people at my particular plant. Some of them are able to work from home, some of them are taking off for a couple weeks as a preventative measure, a few decided that now is a good time to call it quits and retire. The company is offering 2 weeks of paid time off to anyone who wants to self-isolate. I haven't taken that option yet; as no one at my particular plant has gotten sick from it yet. Yet being the key word. When it does arrive, and I'm sure it will, that's when I'll do the 2-week isolating thing. (Hell, I'll do 4 weeks.) I've intentionally been arriving at work later than usual, so that most of dayshift will have emptied out by the time I arrive. Some of my coworkers have opted to swap entire shifts because they share offices and cubicles in close proximity, and the 6 foot distance is impossible to maintain. Between this and the company opening a new plant a couple blocks away, parking has gone from "slightly tight" to "pick a space, any space".
I do a lot of work in a semiconductor cleanroom, so I'm no stranger to wearing a face mask. I can tie one on in seconds and wear it without fogging my glasses when I exhale. The only thing I'm not used to is wearing it in such a way that it can be reused later. These same supplies are also used in hospitals, which are getting priority over my workplace, so we're all trying to be more mindful about how often we go in, and we are reusing stuff originally considered to be one-time use.
Here's something about those disposable surgical masks: They're less about filtering the air breathed in (they couldn't block a fart), they do some, to an extent. They're meant to act as a baffle for exhaled particulates to limit their range. The biggest source of particles in a cleanroom (and by that extension, a hospital operating room) are the people who work in them. A semiconductor cleanroom is driven positive-pressure by giant blowers pushing air through hundreds of HEPA filters the size of ceiling tiles, and a complete turnover of the volume of air is measured in minutes. We don't need masks for that air to be clean and breathable; it's about as clean as it gets. We wear the masks to prevent the wafers from being contaminated by us.
My commute to work has seen a change. Previously, it averaged an hour each way, with the day segment longer than the night due to traffic. It was almost a guarantee that I would hit a traffic jam at some point. Now, it takes 45 minutes in the day, and in places I would encounter stop-and-go traffic, I'm zooming through. The average speeds have also gone up considerably: Normally, I'm averaging 70-75MPH. Now, to keep from getting blown off the road, I'm going about 80-85. The drive home isn't really shorter, since the roads were mostly empty at 1AM to begin with. The only difference I see at that hour is there aren't as many drunks on the road since the bars are closed.
The stimulus payment? I'm not surprised that I got only a sliver.
It felt weird to not go anywhere for Easter dinner. It feels weird to not be able to go to my usual haunts, or at least not as late as I'm used to. Most places still open for business close by 6 or 7 in the evening. Lego stores? Nope, all closed, along with the malls they're in. Restaurants? Some are still open, if only for takeout.
I haven't seen gas prices this low in years. I've been paying $1.80 per gallon lately. There are places further south that are closer to a dollar. Too bad we can't go anywhere! To that end, I've been keeping track of how much I spend in gas for a long time. It'll be interesting to compare March and April of this year to a year ago.
If I have to stay at home for a few weeks, I'll be ok. I have plenty of things to do here to keep me busy. I have enough Lego that I could be building something constantly. I have enough anime and manga to last months. I have enough other projects to stave off boredom. I have enough PTO banked at work that I can bridge whole months without missing any pay.
It's uncertain when anime conventions will return. Given that conventions can be hotbeds for infectious diseases (I've gotten the flu from Katsucon at least twice), it's probably not a bad idea to put them on hold. All of them up into May are canceled or postponed. Some of the larger events in June are also gone. Anime Expo just announced they're putting off until next year. I'm starting to doubt that Otakon is going to happen at all this year. For the cons that got canceled, it seems that people who pre-registered are either getting their money back or have the option of getting it applied to next year. I have a hunch that a lot of conventions aren't going to come back. The ones that do won't be the same.
Some of my favorite vendors at cons have taken to selling things online; previously they would sell only at conventions. They're all small operations, many run by only one or two people, and some of the larger ones might have as many as 7 or 8 people. I have a feeling that many of these vendors are going to call it quits.
I'm buying groceries once a week. I find that the best time to go to my local grocery store is about 60-90 minutes before they close. There are very few people left in the store at that time. Some of the shelves are stripped bare of TP and that doesn't bother me because I have a few rolls and that will last me months. I'm making it a point to avoid going to Walmart as much as possible for obvious reasons, even if going somewhere else means paying extra. Going there in the middle of the night is no longer an option.
At least I didn't make any solid plans for another trip to Japan anytime soon. That won't happen until late this year or more realistically, next year.
We are in weird times and it's going to get weirder. When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
My workplace has been deemed "essential", so I still have to work amidst all this craziness. I'm fine with that. That said, working from home is impossible for me as all of my work requires me to be physically present to do anything. Those wrenches don't turn themselves.
There are fewer people at my particular plant. Some of them are able to work from home, some of them are taking off for a couple weeks as a preventative measure, a few decided that now is a good time to call it quits and retire. The company is offering 2 weeks of paid time off to anyone who wants to self-isolate. I haven't taken that option yet; as no one at my particular plant has gotten sick from it yet. Yet being the key word. When it does arrive, and I'm sure it will, that's when I'll do the 2-week isolating thing. (Hell, I'll do 4 weeks.) I've intentionally been arriving at work later than usual, so that most of dayshift will have emptied out by the time I arrive. Some of my coworkers have opted to swap entire shifts because they share offices and cubicles in close proximity, and the 6 foot distance is impossible to maintain. Between this and the company opening a new plant a couple blocks away, parking has gone from "slightly tight" to "pick a space, any space".
I do a lot of work in a semiconductor cleanroom, so I'm no stranger to wearing a face mask. I can tie one on in seconds and wear it without fogging my glasses when I exhale. The only thing I'm not used to is wearing it in such a way that it can be reused later. These same supplies are also used in hospitals, which are getting priority over my workplace, so we're all trying to be more mindful about how often we go in, and we are reusing stuff originally considered to be one-time use.
Here's something about those disposable surgical masks: They're less about filtering the air breathed in (they couldn't block a fart), they do some, to an extent. They're meant to act as a baffle for exhaled particulates to limit their range. The biggest source of particles in a cleanroom (and by that extension, a hospital operating room) are the people who work in them. A semiconductor cleanroom is driven positive-pressure by giant blowers pushing air through hundreds of HEPA filters the size of ceiling tiles, and a complete turnover of the volume of air is measured in minutes. We don't need masks for that air to be clean and breathable; it's about as clean as it gets. We wear the masks to prevent the wafers from being contaminated by us.
My commute to work has seen a change. Previously, it averaged an hour each way, with the day segment longer than the night due to traffic. It was almost a guarantee that I would hit a traffic jam at some point. Now, it takes 45 minutes in the day, and in places I would encounter stop-and-go traffic, I'm zooming through. The average speeds have also gone up considerably: Normally, I'm averaging 70-75MPH. Now, to keep from getting blown off the road, I'm going about 80-85. The drive home isn't really shorter, since the roads were mostly empty at 1AM to begin with. The only difference I see at that hour is there aren't as many drunks on the road since the bars are closed.
The stimulus payment? I'm not surprised that I got only a sliver.
It felt weird to not go anywhere for Easter dinner. It feels weird to not be able to go to my usual haunts, or at least not as late as I'm used to. Most places still open for business close by 6 or 7 in the evening. Lego stores? Nope, all closed, along with the malls they're in. Restaurants? Some are still open, if only for takeout.
I haven't seen gas prices this low in years. I've been paying $1.80 per gallon lately. There are places further south that are closer to a dollar. Too bad we can't go anywhere! To that end, I've been keeping track of how much I spend in gas for a long time. It'll be interesting to compare March and April of this year to a year ago.
If I have to stay at home for a few weeks, I'll be ok. I have plenty of things to do here to keep me busy. I have enough Lego that I could be building something constantly. I have enough anime and manga to last months. I have enough other projects to stave off boredom. I have enough PTO banked at work that I can bridge whole months without missing any pay.
It's uncertain when anime conventions will return. Given that conventions can be hotbeds for infectious diseases (I've gotten the flu from Katsucon at least twice), it's probably not a bad idea to put them on hold. All of them up into May are canceled or postponed. Some of the larger events in June are also gone. Anime Expo just announced they're putting off until next year. I'm starting to doubt that Otakon is going to happen at all this year. For the cons that got canceled, it seems that people who pre-registered are either getting their money back or have the option of getting it applied to next year. I have a hunch that a lot of conventions aren't going to come back. The ones that do won't be the same.
Some of my favorite vendors at cons have taken to selling things online; previously they would sell only at conventions. They're all small operations, many run by only one or two people, and some of the larger ones might have as many as 7 or 8 people. I have a feeling that many of these vendors are going to call it quits.
I'm buying groceries once a week. I find that the best time to go to my local grocery store is about 60-90 minutes before they close. There are very few people left in the store at that time. Some of the shelves are stripped bare of TP and that doesn't bother me because I have a few rolls and that will last me months. I'm making it a point to avoid going to Walmart as much as possible for obvious reasons, even if going somewhere else means paying extra. Going there in the middle of the night is no longer an option.
At least I didn't make any solid plans for another trip to Japan anytime soon. That won't happen until late this year or more realistically, next year.
We are in weird times and it's going to get weirder. When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
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